America’s emotional distress has climbed to crisis levels

while America’s employment level and violent crime has fallen sharply making cities such as New York safer than they’ve ever been, a problem persist.

Statistics show in 2017, 47,000 people died by suicide, and there were 1.4 million suicide attempts.

This make US suicide rates at the highest level since World War II, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on June 20.

The study says the US suicide rate increased on average by about 1% a year from 2000 through 2006 and by 2% a year from 2006 through 2016.

Drug overdoses claimed 70,000 lives in 2017, and 17.3 million, or 7%, of U.S. adults reported suffering at least one major depressive episode in the past year.

The problems may have different and varied causes, but what they add up to is a national mental health epidemic, says Bloomberg.

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Some countries have started to grapple with the problem. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern unveiled the world’s first Wellbeing Budget in May, earmarking NZ$1.9 billion ($1.2 billion) for mental health.